Finding Your Passion

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We challenged young people from all over the OSCE region to share with us a passion, something that drives them, and to tell us their stories of positive commitment, inspiration and resilience. We received 257 photos and videos illustrating their #DailyThrills: wonderful hobbies, projects, even work, through which they find fulfillment and sometimes even push their limits.

Contribution to the #DailyThrills social media challenge submitted by @kropipi, 11 July 2017.

Why is it so important to find your passion?

People are often attracted to violent extremism because they seek purpose, belonging, recognition, respect, or some thrill and adventure. We want to tell them that there are so many other ways of fulfilling these goals, positive ways.

We invited three young people, who also have their own story to share, to become the #DailyThrills ambassadors: a ballerina, who loves contemporary dance; a student, passionate about his band; and an events manager, who spends his weekends riding a BMX bike. Their stories have been seen on social media almost half a million times – across the 57 OSCE participating States and 11 Partners for Co-operation.

Telling different, better stories

Violent extremists are competing for attention, tailoring their propaganda to appeal to different groups. There are plenty of different, better stories to share about cohesion instead of division, building instead of destructing, earning respect instead of instilling fear.

The #LetsDoodle competition, which invited artists and designers to come up with a character that would challenge stereotypes, brought to life MIX the Sheep – a cartoon ambassador for tolerance, diversity, solidarity and inclusion – which has helped to raise the awareness of millions of people on social media and beyond.